This movie is called 122 Days of Summer — and so far, it doesn’t look good for a happy ending. With only two weeks left to haul in what normally accounts for 40 to 50 per cent of next year’s production costs, Hollywood’s seasonal box office remains soft. And with few big releases left in the wings, it shows no signs of immediate improvement.

Receipts are down by 30 per cent, about $1 billion over last year, totalling just $3.22 billion as opposed to $4.85 billion this time last year.

Experts point to everything from continuing market fragmentation in the wake of digital delivery platforms to stiffer competition from small screen serials. But box-office dissection is hardly neurosurgery.

Anyone who has strolled into the lobby of the local gigaplex understands only too well the kind of ennui that overwhelms the consumer looking for a little escapist distraction.

When half the releases on the marquee carry a digit announcing their derivative contents, it’s hard to work up a head of healthy consumer enthusiasm. Yet, the trend will continue because despite the abject critical failure of something like Transformers 4, Michael Bay’s hulking piece of mechanical boredom still grossed close to a quarter-billion at home – making it the third-highest-grossing movie of the year so far, right after Captain America: Winter Soldier ($259M) and the truly inspired Lego Movie ($257M).

Even the dreadful Spider-Man 2 netted over $200M, proving with enough advertising and screen presence, Hollywood has the tools and the expertise to sell shimmering shinola to the masses.

Making things look even better for the number crunchers is the average rate of return on each release. Last year, 232 new movies were released over the summer season for a cumulative gross of $4.8B, or an average of $20M per release. This year, only 173 movies have been released in North America for a total of $3.2B, or an average of $18.6M per release.

On the whole, the numbers are down, but with fewer releases demanding overhead, print and advertising costs and promotional consideration, so is the risk. For now it seems the current business model will survive, but how long will audiences remain interested in the same story? And how many more retreads will we be subjected to before we descend into a state of collective catatonia, clutching our Ninja Turtle and Star Wars collectibles while sucking our thumbs and kneading our fuzzy SpongeBob blankets?

Judging by the surprising success of The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and 22 Jump Street — all of which rank on the annual box office top 10 — we can be sure we’re going to see more franchise material.

But studios should look closely at what made these films work. It was not special effects, but character. It turns out we like to watch other people solve problems, and we enjoy characters who don’t fit a particular mould. It’s why that bad boy Iron Man remains the most popular Avenger and The Lego Movie’s moral of “being a piece of resistance” ignited the popular imagination: It’s as if we’re awaiting the clarion call to revolution — another distinct theme proving popular with the masses.

Shailene Woodley’s starring role in Divergent, which currently sits at the number 12 spot with $151M in receipts to date, reaffirmed something in the zeitgeist that speaks to an underlying conflict between the empowered few and the exploited masses.

Woodley’s Tris joined Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss in a growing catalogue of young adult vehicles aimed straight at the brick walls of institutional thinking. And it’s a trend that continues: Jeff Bridges stars in a similar outing called The Giver, another post-apocalyptic cautionary tale of conformity and rebellion.

For those who can’t work up an appetite for wholesale revolution, the other big trend is movies for foodies. Jon Favreau’s personal little Chef continues to rise in its indie ramekin, Helen Mirren is stewing in 100-Foot Journey, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have already swallowed half the bivalves on Amalfi Coast in A Trip to Italy and even The Lunchbox, an Indian romance revolving around a misdelivered mess kit, climbed to the top of the foreign film rankings, grossing a respectable $4.2 million.

It’s enough to conjure thoughts of another surprise smash from summer 2014: Weird Al Yankovic, who shot to the top of the Billboard charts with Mandatory Fun, the first comedy album to hit #1 in 30 years. Indeed it was Yankovic who famously observed that if you can’t beat it, “just eat it.”

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